A/N: Chapter 7!!! Kurama is back, but now Kuwabara is down. The story continues from here!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or the characters, except for (you see it coming) the Acire.
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Chapter 7: Conflict and Questions
The group was gathered around the boy, who laid on the white-sheeted bed. Yusuke had removed Kuwabara's coat, so Kurama and Yukina had a better view of the injuries, and had tossed it in the corner of the yellow-stone room. The others watched as the Koorime and Youko tried to find a way to get Kuwabara back up again.
"Let me get this straight. She first caused this cut and after that she entered him,"
Yusuke nodded. "She was in some kind of liquid form and attacked from a distance. None of us saw it coming."
Kurama thought about the situation his friend told him and took an even closer look. There were no other bruises, or at least no visible ones. "I can only draw one conclusion: she entered him and caused some damage inside, wounds that we can not see from the outside."
"A very interesting and dangerous maneuver…" Genkai thought out loud. "How is his situation?"
"Stabile. He doesn't appear to be in some state in which we should fear for his life. It looks more like a shock condition," Kurama said, looking at his friend. If someone told him Kuwabara was asleep, he would've believed it.
"I could try to heal his damaged organs," Yukina said. "I'll work from the wound, following the path she took while inside him."
"I think that's the best option this moment," Kurama agreed. "As long as there is no specific point that I should heal, most of my plants aren't suitable for this work. Your healing powers are more fit for the job."
Yukina nodded and got on her knees next to the bed and placed her hands close to the wound. As soon as she closed her crimson red eyes, a light bluish glow surrounded her and slowly the glow was spreading out over Kuwabara's body as well.
The others who were present in the room stood back to give her some room to work and to prevent that any of them maybe disturbed the healing process.
For a few long minutes the room was dead quiet, it would be possible to hear a needle falling. The Reikai Tantei watched Yukina do her thing. Nothing seemed to be changing if one would look at the body, but the spirit detectives could sense from Yukina's Ki, which rose with the time she was sitting on the ground, that something was happening.
The silence was broken, when Yukina withdrew her hands from Kuwabara's arm. "This is the best I could do." She looked towards the waiting persons, who all carried a curious expression on their face, even Hiei, wanting to know what kind of injuries she had found. She took a deep breath. "I started with the arm, next I searched for inconsistencies in the head and upper body and last the other limbs. In the head and limbs there was no damage at all and in the torso only two small ones: a little cut in the right kidney and a bruised spleen."
"That's all?" Yusuke asked, not believing that those little injuries could knock Kuwabara into the big world of the black.
"Well, there was one more thing I noticed. The energy flow inside him… It seemed different from the other times I had healed him… There was a little disturbance, I don't know what. I tried to find it, but I didn't find anything unnatural. I don't know what to think of it…"
"Disturbance? Does it have any kind of influence on his body functions?" Genkai asked.
"No, I don't think so. Everything seems to be working normal. The change could just as well been from the fact he fainted. Maybe some strange hormone production, but nothing too serious I believe.
"Will he fully restore?" Kurama asked, wanting to get a better view of the current situation.
"O, he'll be fine. All the wounds are healed. Kuwabara-san will wake up soon, could be any minute. I think it was the shock that did the most damage," Yukina said smiling.
"That's good to hear. Now… We'll leave him alone in here, we'll notice when he wakes up. In the time he's still in the land of dreamers, we can do some other things than sitting here being useless," Genkai said, looking down on Kuwabara. She turned around and walked to the door with her hands behind her back. "I'll inform Koenma about what has happened and after that, we'll drink some tea."
'Why does the old hag always have to drink tea? Tea?! Is she English or something?' Yusuke thought annoyed.
Hiei followed Genkai and walked out the room, soon to be followed by Kurama and Yukina. Just before he exited the room Kurama turned around towards his friend and said: "There's nothing you can do for him now. Come on, let's go get some fresh air."
Yusuke looked one more time at his fainted friend. "Alright, but no walks and no lemon tea."
Kurama smiled and let his friend exit before he left the room.
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Ira looked full of doubt at her fellow Acire. Meike was teaching Jeresa how to braid and both had a great time, Meike finally playing the role of the smarter one and Jeresa at last learning to do the thing she had wanted to learn for a few days. However, it weren't the girls that drew her attention. Sarchi was in the room as well, sitting quietly in a corner. That concerned her.
For this she had multiple reasons. The first was that Sarchi wasn't a thinker, he preferred acting. He would never think about something longer then 15 minutes, but he had been sitting there for more then an hour already. Second, if he would think, it wouldn't be inside the house with his fellow Acire. He was more of a loner. If Sarchi had the choice, he would be far, far away from the company and especially from Ira. The third and last point, the most important and leader for Ira's questioning thoughts, was the fact he wasquiet. He was never quiet near her. He always found something to argue about, to try to get her on her knees for once in a discussion. Counting all the facts together she had all the reason to suspect that something was going on.
'Should I ask?' she thought. She wanted to know what was going on, but it was the first time since they moved to this lake that all the Acire had been in the house at the same time and the atmosphere was pleasant. She didn't want to ruin it for the young girls, who had asked Ira more then once when the fighting would stop, but something inside was dying to find out Sarchi's thoughts.
Jeresa rubbed her left eye and started scratching the area around it with her little hand. Meike looked at her 'student', before calling her caretaker: "Ira! Jeresa is scratching again!"
"Time for the medicine already…?" she sighed. Her questions had to wait. She swum to the orange-haired girl and picked her up. After a careful inspection of her left eye, Ira drew the conclusion that the skin was re-growing and the little red spots were slowly fading away. "The last phase of the healing process has started. Just a few more days and it'll be gone."
Jeresa smiled happily when she heard the news. The wound near her eye had bothered her for a long time and kept reminding her of the night she had gotten the injury.
"You'll need some other medication for this stage… Come on, let's go find it," Ira suggested.
"Yeah!" Jeresa spun round of joy, causing her light-green dress to get a round shape.
"Jeresa! I'm leaving without you if you don't follow…" Ira was already half way out the door and the excited young girl, who didn't want to be left behind, swum as fast as she could to Ira, clutching her slim hand.
"No, I'm coming!" Jeresa squealed.
Ira smiled and said to the two remaining Acire in the house: "Meike, you'd behave, OK? Sarchi…?
"Hm?"
"You'll keep an eye on Meike, alright?"
"Fine…"
'Note to myself… I really need to find out what he's thinking about.' "Well, we're going. We'll be back soon!" Together the water-demons left to find some new plants that were needed for the medicines they needed.
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This was the moment the Acire boy had been waiting for. Meike and he were the ones that were supposed to carry out phase two. The plan was ready, now all he had to do was to put some pressure on the girl, so she would cooperate.
Meike could see Sarchi grinning in the corner of her eye. She didn't too feel comfortable near him in his current state and she had the feeling that something she wouldn't like was about to happen. All she could do was hope that Ira got back soon.
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Yusuke sighed. 'When does this guy wake up…? He has been sleeping for hours now!' He had been sitting in Genkai's temple for a few hours, waiting for Kuwabara to wake up and he was getting tired of it, but his friend still hadn't moved a muscle.
Genkai walked in with a tray with 6 cups of tea on it. The cups steamed and produced a smell Yusuke didn't like.
'No, don't let it be true!' But it was. In front of him, Genkai place a cup of lemon tea. 'Why…? Why lemon…?'
"Genkai-san, why are there 6 cups?" Yukina asked. "We are only with five."
"Because Botan will be over shortly to ask some questions. Koenma almost fainted of shock when I informed him of the happenings."
"And he sends Botan to do his dirty works," Yusuke grumbled.
"Maybe that's because Lord Koenma is a busy man and he can't deal with everything in person," a slightly annoyed voice said near the entrance.
"Come in, Botan," Genkai said without looking up. "Glad that you were able to get here so soon. Sit down and have some tea. We have much to talk about."
The blue-haired girl walked in and sat down on the chair facing Yusuke's. She gave him a glare, but, much to Yusuke's relieve, resisted the urge to hit him on the head with her oar.
"OK, now that we're all here, lets start with getting all the fact." Genkai looked at the company. "I want to know everything we now know about the Acire, so we have some insight in how they think and work. That will be the first step to predicting what they're upcoming actions will be…"
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Meike tried to push herself in the corner of the house, one hand clutching her gray skirt, her other hand near her face, ready to protect herself if her observer was going to hit her. A few curly locks hung over her face, her pink eyes full of fear, locked on Sarchi, who approached her.
He grinned. "You can't get away, Meike… There's no place to hide." He squatted near the girl and looked her straight in the eyes. "Now, I want to hear you say it. Say you'll do as I told you, you will follow my plan."
Meike saw the hardness in Sarchi's eyes, gray and unmoving, like stone. With a shaky voice she answered the older Acire. "B… But Ir… Ira said…"
"Ira!" He hit the wall hard with his right fist just inches away from the young girl's face, who curled up from shock and fear. The wall showed cracks after he'd hit it. Sarchi yelled, causing the girl to get only more frightened. "Ira nothing! That good-for-nothing tile of cleaning water!" He stopped his yelling and got closer to the girl, narrowing his eyes he whispered: "She has nothing to say about what I have to do. She has no control or power what so ever. And if you don't do as I told you, Meike… I'll be forced to end your little life, since in that case you know too much."
She shivered. "Please don't…" she begged him.
"If you cooperate… and keep your mouth shut! Ira is never allowed to know what we're going to do and what has been said here. If I find out you did tell her, I'll know where to find you…" He stood up and sat down in his corner again, the one across Meike, keeping his eyes focused on her.
Lowering her pink eyes, Meike tried to fight the tears. The last time she had felt so horrible was the day her parent were killed, but back then, it was Ira who pulled her out of her misery. Now, she was left all alone to deal with the situation, one in which she had to betray the one that had given her a new home, this time she had to leave all the values she knew behind. While thinking about what she had to do now, tears flooded from her eyes.
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"I don't know if I should trust this information," Yusuke said.
"Why not? Kurama got it right from the Acire themselves," Yukina replied.
"Well, who says they weren't lying?"
"Believe me, it is the truth. I could see it in their eyes," Kurama defended his contribution.
"So, we can beat the Acire by closing their eyes?" Yusuke sighed. "That's crap! No demon can be beaten just by covering their eyes with something!"
"Are you sure?" Botan asked. "Back in the Ithara Sea all the Acire were blindfolded, remember?"
"I don't want to remember…" Yusuke mumbled. Pictures of the scene flew through his mind, shots he had wanted to get out of his daily thinking.
"Well, it is very important that we use this info nonetheless. If it is true," Genkai said, "it'll be of some help. If there's no other option, at least we have some strategy up our sleeves."
The conversation was interrupted by a sudden rise of a nearby Ki. All of the persons in the room recognized it immediately.
"So, our sleeping friend has finally awoken," Genkai grinned. "Let's go and say 'good afternoon'."
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"We're back!" Ira entered the room with Jeresa dancing circles around her. "We got what we need for the mediation." She put a bundle of dark green weed on the table. "I think this will be enough for the next week."
Sarchi stood up and started swimming away. Just before he exited the house he said: "I don't think you'll need me anymore here. I'll be around here somewhere if you really need me."
"OK." Ira didn't bother to look at him. This was the normal way of their communication. Apparently her suspicions before were wrong, Sarchi seemed to be behaving normal now. She turned to the other girl. "Meike, do you want to help me with grinding the plants?
No reply. "Meike?" she looked at the young girl, who was still curled up to a ball in the corner.
Ira approached her and stroke her face. "He, is something wrong?" After the shortest look in Meike's pink eyes Ira could see that something was really out of order. "Meike, have you been crying? You can tell me…"
Meike didn't answer. She lifted her eyes from the ground, staring into Ira's aqua orbs. Her eyes burned again and in a wave of emotions, sadness, anger, despair, she threw her arms around Ira's neck and started to cry with her face buried in her shoulder.
Ira embraced the girl and held her tight. While stroking the girls pink hair, her eye fell on the cracks in the wall. She knew Meike wasn't strong enough to cause that kind of damage. Sarchi was behind this. All her suspicions came showing up again. The situation was getting harder and harder to control, so that moment she decided to keep an even closer eye on the 'family' and especially on Sarchi. Ira was not about to let everything slip away, getting everything destroyed by one person.
The same moment Ira thought about what Sarchi was up to, Meike started crying even harder. She wanted to throw all her feelings, everything that was on her mind out, but she couldn't. The one person she could trust unconditional was the person, who was now the last she was allowed to tell her secret. Meike had never felt so lonely before in her entire life, as on that moment.
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A/N Chapter 7! I know, no big changes, but this is the intro to the next part, the step to Phase 2. Please review! Please?